Saturday, October 31, 2015

It's been a gooood week!

Last Saturday we had a mission 5k. Yep. 200 girls in matching shirts running uphill and downhill in Salt Lake City. It was quite the sight. You will all be proud to know that I ran the entire thing (okaymaybestumbledthroughismoreaccurate)! The people who used to serve in Temple Square and now live nearby covered the square for us that morning. Only on Temple Square can you get missionary substitutes... We were fed Einstein's Bagels afterwards, so all in all, it was a pretty good day.

It's been pretty quiet lately at the square. There is a Congress of Families thing happening nearby, so we've had a couple of visitors from that, and the tours go really smoothly because they're all really friendly. Sister Burgoyne and I were assigned to be in the Assembly Hall for an hour one night and not a single soul came in until the last 5 minutes.

Although we didn't meet a lot of new people this week, we've seen so many miracles with the people we had been teaching for a while. Yesterday, we called a couple of our investigators to check up and to teach; the first one we called in the UK said, "the missionaries are coming over in five minutes, so I don't have much time to talk!" We couldn't get in touch with her for a while, so we were worried that she lost interest. She said that she was meeting with the missionaries because she really wanted to get baptised and wanted to learn everything there was to learn!

The second person we called in Texas had just met with the local missionaries the night before, and had another appointment for the next night. (!!!!) We read the Book of Mormon with her and explained how to read the Book of Mormon so that it could be meaningful to her life. She is so sweet and open hearted and open minded and truly has the desire to see for herself if this is true!

The last person we called that night was in the middle of meeting with the missionaries. (oops!) We said goodbye immediately, but we were ecstatic that she was progressing and learning.

When we call our investigators, most of them don't pick up, or are unwilling to do anything. They don't have time to go to church on Sunday. They don't have the patience to read the Book of Mormon. They feel nervous about getting in contact with the local missionaries. But this week,something is happening. Sister Burgoyne and I are doing something right. One night she said, "...Do you realize that we have seven people to follow up with for meeting with local missionaries/going to church?" Last week we had two people saying they would go to church is their work schedule permitted. This week we have eight (another new one from today!) that have committed to doing things. Aghhh!!!!

I am just in awe of all the things that went right this week. I am so so so extremely thankful for these people and their prepared hearts. At Temple Square, I realized that missionary work has very little to do with your competence. Of course, we need to do everything that we can as missionaries; we need to study, plan, prepare, pray, and use all the brain power that we can each day. But the success that we've seen so far has everything to do with the experiences of our investigators, the preparation of their local missionaries, and the hand of God in placing the right people in the right places at the right times. I am so so so so so so (so) grateful for everyone involved in the process of helping investigators come closer to Christ.

And the bonus: we saw David Archuleta in a car driving past when we were waiting for a stop light last Saturday. Last weekend we had Luz de las Naciones: Promesa de la Juventud (which is Spanish for Large Latino Gathering in the Conference Center) and David Archuleta was the guest star for the entire event. I was pretty bummed about not being able to attend, but it's a-okay because David Archuleta and I were about two meters and a metal car door away from each other.